Software Screenshots

If you want to install and use the Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Share app on your PC or Mac, you will need to download and install a Desktop App emulator for your computer. We have worked diligently to help you understand how to use this app for your computer in 4 simple steps below:

Step 1: Download an Android emulator for PC and Mac

Ok. First things first. If you want to use the application on your computer, first visit the Mac store or Windows AppStore and search for either the Bluestacks app or the Nox App . Most of the tutorials on the web recommends the Bluestacks app and I might be tempted to recommend it too, because you are more likely to easily find solutions online if you have trouble using the Bluestacks application on your computer. You can download the Bluestacks Pc or Mac software here .

Step 2: Install the emulator on your PC or Mac

Now that you have downloaded the emulator of your choice, go to the Downloads folder on your computer to locate the emulator or Bluestacks application.
Once you have found it, click it to install the application or exe on your PC or Mac computer.
Now click Next to accept the license agreement.
Follow the on screen directives in order to install the application properly.
If you do the above correctly, the Emulator app will be successfully installed.

Step 3: for PC - Windows 7/8 / 8.1 / 10

Now, open the Emulator application you have installed and look for its search bar. Once you found it, type Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Share in the search bar and press Search. Click on Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Shareapplication icon. A window of Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Share on the Play Store or the app store will open and it will display the Store in your emulator application. Now, press the Install button and like on an iPhone or Android device, your application will start downloading. Now we are all done.
You will see an icon called "All Apps".
Click on it and it will take you to a page containing all your installed applications.
You should see the icon. Click on it and start using the application.

Step 4: for Mac OS

Hi. Mac user!
The steps to use Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Share for Mac are exactly like the ones for Windows OS above. All you need to do is install the Nox Application Emulator or Bluestack on your Macintosh. The links are provided in step one

Google Docs: Sync, Edit, Share Software Features and Description

Create, edit, and collaborate on the go with the Google Docs app.
Work together in real time
* Share documents with your team
* Edit, comment and add action items in real time
* Never lose changes or previous versions of your document with version history
Create anywhere, anytime—even offline
* Capture spontaneous ideas on the fly
* Get things done, even on the plane, with offline mode
* Save time and add polish with easy-to-use templates
Search Google right in Docs
* Use Google Search without leaving your document
* Search all of your files in Drive, right in Docs
Edit and share multiple file types
* Open a variety of files, including Microsoft Word files, right in Google Docs
* Frictionless collaboration, no matter which application your teammates use
* Convert and export files seamlessly
Part of G Suite: Google’s intelligent apps for business
* Connect and collaborate with your team, using one suite—Gmail, Drive, Calendar and more
* Use Google’s AI to bring data insights to every employee
* Join more than 4M paying businesses who trust G Suite to power their organization
Permissions Notice
Camera: This is used to takes photos to insert into documents.
Photos: This is used to access photos under the control of Photos Application to let the users pick images to insert into documents.

Top Reviews

Better for Personal Use

by NoEyesJess

I’ve been a longtime user of Google Docs—around three or four years—and it’s been great for storing important documents. I’ve also used it a lot for jotting down ideas, writing creative stories, and other personal uses. I feel that these are what the app is best for. I’ve tried to use it several times for academic essays, and the current format does not support certain basic functions, especially with indentation, adding page numbers in MLA or APA, and so on. The spell check for Google Docs is also flawed, and frequently marks everyday words as misspelled, and then other words not in the regular dictionary as perfectly correct. The syncing is also kind of finicky sometimes, and you can lose work or have to restart the app multiple times in one sitting, if you’re somewhere that there is no ideal connection. So if you’re a student or a professional, you are also going to want Microsoft Word, which has more features and is easier to use.
However, the syncing generally works very well, and I love being able to back up all my documents. The aesthetic appearance of the documents are also very appealing, and most of the basic writing functions are easy to access. Keyboard shortcuts still work, and those shortcuts match to whichever model of computer you are using, so you don’t have to learn anything terribly new to use the app competently. It’s super easy to add other contributors, and to restrict privacy/use settings. All in all it has served me very ell.

Highly recommended, but definitely room for improvement

by Silvercove

Google Docs is very, very useful as a whole, providing services that allow seamless collaboration and that solve many past horrors of word-processors (like the classic “I didn’t save my doc and now it’s gone foreverrrrr!!”).
As great as it is on desktop, I personally found the transfer to mobile devices a little, well, less great. It’s obviously difficult to find an intuitive way to lay out all the functions of Docs on desktop onto a smaller screen, but it’s honestly such a huge hassle navigating comments and suggestions, even when I’m on my iPad. It’s also kind of annoying that I can’t zoom out more on a doc—basically, once the width of the page fills the screen, I can no longer zoom out. This doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but it makes for a lot of tedious scrolling when an already long document has relatively large text.
Additionally, there are these small annoying glitches that occasionally occur. For example, when I was editing a doc, I kept trying to delete a space, but it would always delete the space and the letter behind it. I tried over and over again to no avail... sigh....
It also seems to me that Docs can get kind of slow? I’m on a new device, so the hardware should be working fine, but there’s a huge lag when I’m trying to type in the app.
Other than these few problems, everything else has been working fine and going smoothly.

I use this app a lot

by TopazSW

I write original works and fan fics, and this app lets me work on them at any point. Just waking up and I have an idea, just hopping out of the shower, in the line at the store, lunch break, moments of clarity while gardening, you get the point. Since the first time I’ve used this app, to the many years later, I have stopped worrying about forgetting some idea I had before I get to my computer. Even if my phone is offline, I have been able to work on my stories. I think it really is my most used app on my phone. Also, because it auto saves, I HAVE NEVER HAD MY STORIES DISAPPEAR! Unlike other writing programs, that have lost me hours of work because of a blue screen, freezing, or other issues, I have never had the pain of opening a Google Doc and finding all my work gone. I do wish it had a better way to organize your files, as what it does have seems “meh.” But, at least, it has some form of organization. Lastly, I love that I can share the doc in various ways. This has been so helpful for me when I comes to sharing my stories. It lets those who are my beta reader comment and make suggestions, those who I wrote for have full access, and those who I want to let just read all have their own set of restrictions.

Essential Tool!! A Must-Have

by Jenna Sturgeon

Google Docs is a comprehensive cloud document service that let’s me share and create just about anything I could ever want or need. I’ve used it to polish up my resume, capture notes and ideas, record song lyrics, journal my dreams, create schedules, write stories, and more! The sharing features are fantastic; my sister and I co-authored a novel using Google Docs! We can edit and read each other’s work in real time, leave comments and suggestions, and use the chat to stay on the same page. Google Docs is THE essential writing tool for creative and practical uses — plus it has cloud storage that makes it seamless to work on your projects from any device! I’ll often be working on a story on my computer and move to my phone for edits, or pull it up to add an idea quickly while on-the-go. There’s also free templates to chose from that helped me format my resume and other official documents. I love Google Docs, and it definitely earned those 5 stars. I suggest it to anyone looking for a modern word processing application that is catered to usability and will exceed your expectations.

Great, except...

by ivd37950

Like most people of Generation Z, the later years of my education (8th grade-present) have greatly benefited from using Google applications such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Google Docs’s amazing accessibility, collaboration tools, storage, and auto-save have always been what’s made it better than competing office tools. The app itself is great, and once you get the hand of using it on a hand held device, it makes working from almost anywhere possible. I’ve found myself using these Google applications for more than just essays and presentations now a days, as I begin to need work resumés and finance budgets.
So really, Docs (and other Google applications) are great! Except, I’ve encountered an issue when using this Docs app. Now, this could be because of several reasons, however, I’ve found that after prolonged used, when typing, the keyboard begins to lag a bunch, making working on documents so frustrating. At first I thought that the keyboard could be lagging because my iPad might’ve over heated? But, the keyboard has lagged even when the iPad doesn’t feel warm. I’m not sure if internet connection might have something to do with it, but my Wifi is pretty strong, and I rarely encounter issues with it.
That’s my only complaint, but other than that I really do love the app.

Love Google docs

by Keltonisayapperdog

I absolutely love google docs, especially since I’m in college and it saves your work automatically when your up at 2:00am trying to finish an essay that is due that same day and you fall asleep.
There probably is away to do this, but if not I wish there would be away to categorize documents into different folders for different projects or classes and or poor year. I think this would be very helpful for me since one day I would love to show my kids that hard work does pay off.
The slide shows are excellent and great for presenting history projects to make them at least semi fun and very easy to use once you learn to switch over from PowerPoint... but the basic outline I personally feel is similar yet differently. The docs were it is like Microsoft Word is very identical just a few extra perks of not having to save, having all of your work in one place, and very easy usage.
The only reason for a 4 star was the fact is that if it doesn’t have the filing system “ I would be surprised if it didn’t” again probably haven’t figured it out, but have been using this program since 2015 at-least so I think I would have found it, but things fly over everybody's head sometimes “am I right or am I right?”

Great for writing, but hard to insert equations

by EngineeringUndergrad

Google’s Docs is fantastic! It is nice to have your document constantly backed up without hassle. I have grown to prefer using this app over Microsoft’s Word and Apple’s Pages. I use this app mostly on an iPad and keyboard. One thing that stand out for google docs over the other word processing apps is its ease to format using keyboard shortcuts. In iOS this is HUGE!!! The ability to use keyboard shortcuts drastically improves productivity when working in a touch based operating system!
With that being said, I cannot do all my work on this app. I can type up most of my documents using this app, but I need to switch to a different device to do some finishing touches before publishing my documents. For example, it would be nice to change a documents margin’s while using this app. It also would be nice to insert equations using this app. As it stands, those features remain on the web based version of docs and not on the iOS version. That being said, google docs is my go to app for any word processing on an iOS device. It is clear the team at google have put a lot of work into developing this app, perhaps even more than its competitors.

Fantastic with some suggestions

by JEMmusy

I love the way docs works because it saves your data constantly and it doesn’t glitch on you and it provides you with so many ways to type notes for school, writing, and much more.
I do have some suggestions to make the work flow for taking notes easier though. When it comes to fonts, there are specific ones I like to use for notes, but it becomes a pain to have to go back and switch it to the font you like instead of the default Ariel. The same goes for the headings and other text variations. They default to Ariel instead of the font that you were using before hand.
Another suggestion I have is to make a keyboard short cut for the horizontal line. That would make dividing sections of writing way easier.
The last suggestion I have is to also make a key board short cut for the list option styles. For example, I don’t like using the default dot style for the list. I like using the star one because it makes the list more interesting to look at. So instead of defaulting to the dot style it could default to the style of list that you were using before hand. For example, I would be using the star style of list and then I would section that list off with a horizontal line and then begin to start a new list that would then default to the star style.
In general, maybe you guys could make google docs more customizable or at least have let it have the option to be more customizable with custom keyboard commands for different things.

Google Docs is OK but painful on iPad

by Teliantes

I think if I used an external keyboard it might be better, but formatting and getting spreadsheets to function like excel is really not an option. I find that trying to select text to cut and paste or copy or for formatting font size or color is very frustrating. You have to grab and roll your finger just right or you select too much. Also, when backspacing, use caution. I couldn't stop it from deleting far more than i wanted. Make sure you select what you want to delete instead of relying on bkspc to stop when you want it to. I am happy I found a way to do my budget on my iPad since my laptop is tedious to start up just to work on my finances, but i do wish it wasn't so painful to toggle into edit mode. Google should talk to more end users, and I am also not a fan of the company being that I have a 35 yr Career in Technology and I am FEMALE...so I am sure they will wake up and come into the 21st century soon with their treatment of women, and get more women managing projects and holding positions of power. Their tolerance for misogyny is incredibly sickening. I wish someone from a more progressive company would invent a better alternative since I don't trust or like Google.

Good for the most part

by asy4239

Google docs is a fantastic website to use to get work done. It auto saves, allows collaboration, and has so many other features. The app, however, lags so much when typing that you can type a sentence or phrase and reasonably expect to wait another 10+ seconds before it finishes typing. And this is on a doc with only one person on it. Imagine the frustration when multiple people are on it! And if you think it’s done typing and go to fix an error earlier in the sentence, it will continue typing in the middle of the sentence (even though you finished typing several seconds prior).
Another problem with it is the inability to copy and paste MLA citations in it. If I’m working on an essay and need to make a bibliography, I’ll copy the formatted citation from an online citation maker, paste it into google docs, then have to manually readjust the spacing to make it correct. While you can just paste it into Word and go, you can’t with google docs, which is frustrating, especially when you’ve got 15 sources to format manually. (This is a problem with the website on a computer, too.)